The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-07-16

ThOtOgrapns OI ugnCnlng nasneS,
 which are expected to be of much inn
 portance in certain researches, are ea-
 gerly sought by the council of the
 Royal Meteorological Society, of Lon-
 don.
 Microscopic air and liquid bubbles
 exist in many crystals of minerals, no
 less than 4,000,000 having been esti-
 mated to have place in a cube of
 quartz one-twenty fifth of an inch
 square.
 An exhibition of useful insects and
 their products, with noxious insects and specimens of their injuries, will
 be open in Paris from August P to
 September 28. Insecticides and va-
 rious insect destroying devices will also be shown.
 The Chinese boast of a series of eclipses, recorded in the annals of the nation, extending over period of $500 years, all of which, they affirm, were not only observed bnt were cal culated and figured in advance. The golden age of Chinese astronomy was from about 2,857 to 480 B. c.
 Specimens of the pearls said to be sometimes formed in the interior of cocoanuts have been obtained in North Celebes by Dr. Sydney J. Hickson.
 He describes them as being about half an inch in diameter, worn smooth by friction, and consisting of pure carbon ate of lime, with no trace of vegetable matter.
 From records covering more than twenty years, it appears that the av- craze annual rainfall of the whole of India, excluding Burmah and the Himalaya, is about AZ inches. The range-one of the most wonderful in the worlds from about 500 or 600 inches in Cherra Punji to from 1 to inches in Sindh.
 Musical composers are indebted to science for two new instruments. The melograph-lately described-is de- signed to accurately record the notes of any tune played upon piano; and the melotrope has just been devised in France to faithfully reproduce upon any piano the pieces automatically | copied by the first apparatus.
 The electric trumpet of M. Zigang is adapted to useful service tor signaling on ships, railways, etc., consists of short brass tube mounted on wood and containing an electro magnet whose ends face a vibrating plate bearing small piece of soft iron. A platinum-pointed regulating screw resting against this plate-armature serves to vary the musical sound, which may be produced with two Leclanche elements.
 MOTION AT REsT.-At the Royal h. stitution, London, MT. Wimshurst has exhibited an exceedingly interesting in which small type placed on disc revolving several thousand times minute was distinctly seen and read while in motion. This was accomplished by means of an electrical which caused brilliant sparks to illuminate the print at the exact instant only when the type was vertical. But for the buzzing produced by the great velocity of the disc, the words would have been supposed to be at rest. This beautiful application of the electric spark gives ready means of observing any and all changes which may take place in either matter or ma- chinery in rapid motion.
 AN UNDULAToRY THEORY OF ODoR. That odor is, like light and sound, of undulation is the be- lief of M. F. Leclerc. He urges that it is more reasonable to suppose that the odors produced by rubbing cer- tain ubstances-like sulphur and cop- per-are due to the waves set up than that the rubbing causes matter to be emitted which cannot be detected ex- cept as smell. The garlic-odor of heated arsenious acid is smell &C., chemical action the same as in many other cases we have light or heat in connection with it. With somewhat imperfect apparatus, M. Leclerc claims to have produced inter- ference of odors analogous with the phenomena of light.
 SOLIDIrIRD SEA FoAM.-Ambergris which commands 8 high price for perfumery and is prized in the east in medicine and as flavor in cookery, was once absurdly guessed to be hardened foam of the sea, or fungoid growth in the ocean, but it is now known to be secretion of the liver of the spermaceti whale, and is evidently a product of some disease in the ami nal. It is soft, fatty substance of vo rsonofo uy.ov oy hlocH;oh o~Io~ o~xI